Autonomous and Dynamic Generation of a Living Website for Continuous User Engagement

ABSTRACT

A living website is provided that autonomously and dynamically changes presentation based on engagement from users, business members, distributed devices, and, optionally, individual user preferences. The living website presentation changes with the promotion and demotion of website elements through repositioning, visual differentiation, and other means. These changes are produced by a machine rewriting of the living website code that is conditioned on the continually tracked engagement. In particular, the tracked engagement identifies the website elements that are most engaging at that time. The living website then adapts in order to presents users with this most engaging content in a manner that is immediately apparent and before them. Consequently, users spend less time searching, scrolling, or otherwise browsing a website in order to find content that is engaging and of interest to them, and more time interacting with the engaging content that is already before them.

BACKGROUND ART

Review websites, such as Yelp, can have a significant impact on abusiness. A sufficient number of negative reviews or ratings canpersuade potential customers to go elsewhere. A sufficient number ofpositive reviews or ratings can persuade new customers to give thebusiness a try or persuade customers deciding between two or morebusinesses to try the business with the most positive reviews orratings.

Due to the importance that individuals place on the experiences ofothers, review websites have become the defacto website for manybusinesses. This is especially true for review websites that aggregatevarious information (e.g., hours of operations, contact information,addressing, menus, pricing, etc.) with the reviews and ratings ofindividuals. In other words, potential customers may visit the reviewwebsite instead of or in addition to the business's own website, andlean more heavily on the information from the review website than thebusiness's own website when deciding whether to visit or transact withthe business.

There are however several shortcomings with these review websites. Falseand inaccurate information can be posted with no verification. Reviewsand ratings persist and follow the business regardless of whether or notthe business has changed for the better or worse. Reviews and ratingshave equal effects on a business regardless of whether a review orrating focuses on an insignificant, inconsequential, or temporary aspectof the business as opposed to the primary focus or permanent fixture ofthe business. For instance, a first reviewer may post a negative reviewbecause the reviewer disliked the parking in nearby streets around arestaurant on a particular day, while a second reviewer may post apositive review that the food from the restaurant was exquisite. Reviewwebsites treat these two posts equally. Consequently, the two posts canhave equal affect on the business unless a reader takes the time todissent the text of each individual post. These and other issues arisewith nearly every review website because the content is not curated orverified. The content is simply aggregated in one place regardless ofits focus and relevance, and the business has little to not control overwhat others publish as factual information about the business.

Accordingly, there is a need to more effectively engage consumers andbusinesses, and provide a single portal whereby accurate informationfrom both parties is presented and is curated according to the providedinformation. In other words, there is a need to replace the simpleaggregation and sequential add-on of every review and rating approach ofreview websites with a dynamically generated website that continuallychanges based on timely, relevant, and accurate informationcontributions from consumers and the business, whereby the presentationof the dynamically generated website can be further customized accordingto individual customer preferences or offerings of the specificbusiness. There is a further a need to spur engagement of customers andbusinesses and for the dynamic website generation to occurnon-intrusively. To this end, there is a need to incorporate distributeddevices from which objective and accurate information can be used tosupplement the posts of individuals or to verify the accuracy andcontent of those posts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 conceptually illustrates the various input sources feeding theautonomous dynamic website generation that brings about the livingwebsite of some embodiments.

FIG. 2 presents a process for dynamic generation of the living websitebased on human and non-human input sources in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 3 conceptually illustrates dynamic placement of different input fora particular website element of a living website in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 4 conceptually illustrates a living website modifying itself, andmore specifically, its presentation of website elements in accordancewith the autonomous and dynamic generation of the living website.

FIG. 5 conceptually illustrates the living website reconfiguring withvisual differentiation of a web site element with high engagement valuein accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 6 conceptually illustrates a user profile for customizing theautonomous and dynamic generation of the living website in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 7 presents a process by which the living website autonomously anddynamically customizes its code and presentation for an individual userbased on a user profile in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 8 conceptually illustrates individualized customizations of theliving website in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates exemplary components of the living website generationsystem.

FIG. 10 illustrates a system or server with which some embodiments areimplemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure pertains to a living website. The living website keepsusers engaged by autonomously and dynamically changing its content,layout, and presentation such that subsequent requests for the samewebsite can result in different renderings or presentations of theliving website. The living website represents digital content that ispresented on digital devices. The living website can be a website thatis presented via a browser application. The living website can also bedisplayed directly within an application other than a browserapplication. For example, the living website may be content presentedthrough an application of a specific business or a consumer applicationfrom which to access the living websites of different businesses.

The changes and customizations to the living website are based onengagement from external sources and, optionally, individual userpreferences. The living website adapts to active engagement includinginput that is directly contributed by individuals and business members.The living website also adapts to passive engagement including userinteractions with the living website that does not result in an activecontribution (e.g., time spent on the site, selection of differentlinks, etc.) or user interactions with the business represented by theliving website. The passive engagement stems from input produced fromtracking or monitoring user interactions with the living website as wellas input produced by distributed devices without human intervention orhuman involvement. The living website can also be autonomously anddynamically adapted for each user based on user preferences and trackedengagements each user has with the living website and other dynamicallygenerated websites for other businesses.

These embodiments break from traditional website creation and browsingby providing a living website that is autonomously and dynamicallygenerated as opposed to static or human administered websites of theprior art. In particular, the living website continuously changes itsown code, website elements, presentation, look, format, and contentautonomously through a machine rewriting of the code. The machinerewriting of the code is conditioned and triggered based on the activeand passive engagement obtained from each of the above describeddistinct input sources (e.g., business members, users, and externaldistributed devices). The living website is also alive in the sense thatthe machine rewriting of the code does not involve a simple appending ofnew content to the website. Instead, the machine rewriting of the codeuses the active and passive engagement as a basis with which new andexisting content are verified, culled, repositioned, and curated.

The living website can be generated and adapted without a centralauthority controlling its code base. The living website drives userengagement and retains users at the website by offering differentpresentations of the same website to different visitors, with eachpresentation highlighting the website elements and corresponding contentthat is most engaging at that time. Some embodiments further modify thepresentation of the same website for different visitors such that eachpresentation presents the website elements and corresponding contentthat is most engaging for the individual visitor based on priorengagements of that visitor. The living website also drives userengagement and retains users at the website by allowing them tocontribute their own content to the website of a business and have thebusiness website take shape according to the engagements of the user andother users.

These dynamic presentations break from traditional web browsing. Inparticular, the dynamic presentations increase user engagement byeliminating time spent by users in searching, scrolling, or otherwisebrowsing a website in order to find content that is engaging and ofinterest to them. The living website is dynamically generated upon eachrequest to visually differentiate and promote the desired content insuch a manner that it is immediately apparent and before the user. Theirrelevant content can be obscured or even removed from the websitebefore presentation to the user. In other words, rather than present ageneric website to a user, the living website attempts to read theuser's mind and desires before generating the website presentation. Indoing so, users spend less time aimlessly trying to find engagingcontent and are less likely to navigate to a different site because theydid not find the content they wanted in a given amount of time.Consequently, users spend more time, on average, on a living website ofsome embodiments than other websites of the prior art. Users visit fewerwebsites because more engaging content is in one place on the livingwebsite. Replacing the time spent in searching, scrolling, and browsingprior art websites with time spent engaging with website elements of theliving website also translates into more business and revenue, increasedcustomer retention and loyalty, and increased website traffic to theliving website. In turn, this translates into increased customers forthe underlying business.

FIG. 1 conceptually illustrates the various input sources feeding theautonomous dynamic website generation that brings about the livingwebsite of some embodiments. The figure illustrates the living websitegeneration system 110. The living website generation system 110autonomously and dynamically generates the living website 120 for aparticular business 130. Although a single business is shown, the system110 can autonomously and dynamically generate multiple living websitesfor multiple different businesses or entities.

In some embodiments, modifications are made to Domain Name System (DNS)servers such that requests directed to the particular business 130living website 120 or domain are aliased, resolved, or otherwiseforwarded to the system 110. In some other embodiments, the system 110hosts the domain or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) at which the livingwebsite 120 of the particular business 120 is accessed.

The system 110 autonomously and dynamically generates the living website120 based on inputs from the particular business 130, and also inputsfrom users 140 and a set of distributed devices 150. The users 140include visitors to the living website 120 and customers of theparticular business 130. The input from the set of distributed devices150 is generated and passed to the system 110 without human interventionor involvement. In FIG. 1, the distributed devices include mobiledevices 150 of the users 140 and point of sale devices 160 of theparticular business 130. Although not shown, additional or otherdistributed devices can also provide input to the living websitegeneration system 110.

The living website generation system 110 executes on one or more networkenabled machines. The machines autonomously generate the code from whichthe living website 120 of the particular business 130 and websites ofother businesses are rendered based on the continuous feed of input fromthe input sources 130, 140, 150, and 160 and other input sources notenumerated in FIG. 1. The machines also continuously rewrite and modifythe living website 120 code based on the continuous input feed. FIG. 9below enumerates some components of the living website generation system110 in greater detail.

Each living website 120 has several website elements. The websiteelements of a particular living website can be partitioned intodifferent sections and managed separately in their respective sections.The website elements can also be hierarchically arranged such that asequence of website element selections traverse the hierarchy to arriveat a particular website element that is embedded down in the hierarchy.Each website element is one or more of text, a selectable link, animage, an application, video, audio, or other website content. Eachwebsite element represents or conveys information about a business orofferings of the business. Each website element is defined as HypterTextMarkup Language (HTML) code in preferred embodiments. For instance, awebsite element with a selectable link and an image can have “<ahref=...>” and “<img src=...>” HTML tags. In some embodiments, thewebsite elements can be further comprised of scripts in one or morescripting languages, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), applications, andfunction calls, as some examples. The system 110 also serves the livingwebsite to requesting devices, servers, or users over a digital network,such as the Internet, using standard networking protocols includingInternet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), andHyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

In some embodiments, the business 130 registers with the living websitegeneration system 110 in order to have the system 110 autonomously anddynamically generate the living website 120 for that business 130. Theinitial input from the business 130 can include a template for aninitial layout of website elements. In the case of the business 130operating as a restaurant, the initial input could include a menu ofdishes and pricing for each dish. The living website generation system110 then grows and evolves the website from the initial input, template,or layout based on engagement from the users 140 and distributed devices150 and 160. In particular, the living website generation system 110autonomously rewrites the website code based on the engagement and/oradditional input from the particular business 130 serving to verify theaccuracy and relevance of the engagement input or provide first-handinformation about changes to the business offerings.

User 140 engagement can include the submission of reviews, ratings, andimages about offerings of business 130 as presented through the websiteelements of the living website 120. User 140 engagement can also includeperforming a set of actions (e.g., liking, sharing, interested in, etc.)on the website elements. Users 140 submit these inputs to the system 110using a network enabled device such as a mobile phone, tablet, orcomputer.

In some embodiments, the users 140 register with the engine 110 beforesubmitting the input. The registration creates a user profile from whichthe input can be submitted. The user profile is also used to track theengagement of a corresponding user when the user visits any of theliving websites generated by the system 110. In particular, the system110 tracks website elements selected or viewed by the user, the amountof time the user spends viewing different website elements, number ofvisits by the user to a living website, etc. In some embodiments, thesystem 110 uses the tracked engagement from the user profile tocustomize the generation of the living website 120 on an individualizedbasis.

The generation of living website 120 is also based on the input from thedistributed devices 150 and 160. The distributed devices 150 and 160input is not manually generated or submitted by a user. Rather, this isinput that is produced from an electronic sensor or from functionalexecution of the distributed devices 150 and 160. For instance,geolocation input can be obtained from a Global Positioning System (GPS)sensor of the user mobile devices 150. The geolocation input identifieswhen a user enters a business. This geolocation input can then serve asinput with which the system 110 can verify other input about thebusiness that is submitted by the mobile device user (e.g., reviews orratings targeting the business or its offerings). The point of saledevices 160 provide input regarding purchases made by different usersfrom different businesses. This input can again be used to verify otheruser submitted input (e.g., reviews or ratings about particular businessofferings) or can be used as input with which to modify the livingwebsite and promote popular business offerings.

FIG. 2 presents a process 200 for dynamic generation of the livingwebsite based on human and non-human input sources in accordance withsome embodiments. Process 200 is performed by the living websitegeneration system identified in FIG. 1 above.

The process 200 commences by providing (at 205) a first presentation ofthe living website to one or more user devices in response to requestsfor the living website. The process conditions (at 210) the machinerewriting of the living website code (e.g., changing from the firstpresentation to a different second presentation) on tracked engagementwith the first presentation of the living website.

The process tracks engagement in the form of new input that is obtained(at 215). As noted above, the new input can be obtained from differentindividuals that engage with the particular website. This can includecontributions from the business personnel and users that are customersor potential customers of the business. Users can submit reviews,ratings, images, or perform different actions with respect to existingcontent on the particular website. For example, users can tag a websiteelement that represents a dish from a restaurant with the tag expressingthe user's interest in that dish, sharing the dish with anotherindividual, saving the dish for later viewing, scoring the dish, orengaging in some other manner. Similarly, the business personnel canprovide content in the form of new entries for the website, new images,new descriptions, new promotions, etc. The new input can also beobtained without human intervention or involvement from the distributeddevices.

The process determines (at 220) the verification status of the newinput. The new input can be verified with or without human intervention.For example, if a user submits an image of a restaurant dish, the imagecan be sent to a member of the restaurant who can then confirm that theimage is submitted for the correct dish and accurately conveys thepresentation of the dish by the restaurant. Verification without humanintervention involves using existing content or input from thedistributed devices to verify the new content obtained at step 215. Forexample, if a user submits a review of a restaurant dish, the systemconfirms that the user was at the restaurant based on geolocationtracking of the user's mobile device. The system can alternatively oradditional confirm that the user ordered the dish, thereby verifyingauthenticity and accuracy of the review, based on integration of salesinformation from the business's point of sale devices. In someembodiments, the verification step is optional or performed with respectto specific types of input or input that is manually submitted by users.

The process retains (at 230) without presentation new input that cannotbe or is not yet verified. Alternatively, the process may discard orobscurely present new input that cannot be or is not yet verified,wherein the obscure presentation may include positioning the new inputunderneath or away from other verified input.

The process adds input that is verified to the website presentation. Toadd the input to the website presentation, the process determines (at240) whether the new input is relevant or pertains to a website elementof the living website. In some embodiments, the determination is basedon the website element under which the input is submitted. For instance,a rating or favorite action is tied to a particular website elementwithin the presentation of the living website. In some otherembodiments, the determination is based on keyword analysis. Forinstance, the new input may be a review directed to the music played ina restaurant, but the website provides a menu for items served by therestaurant. The relevance of the review is therefore unrelated to any ofthe website elements. In response to determining that the new input hasno relevance to any of the website elements, the process discards (at250) the input or retains it for custom insertion by the business. Thenew input has relevance when the subject or target of the content is anexisting element within the website. For example, the new input isrelevant when it is a review directed to a particular dish from arestaurant menu that is presented on the website. The processdynamically adds the new input in response to determining that the inputis relevant.

Dynamically adding the input involves positioning (at 260) the new inputwith the website element to which it pertains. The positioning furtherinvolves determining where to locate the new input relative to existinginput or content associated with the same website element. The locationis based on the engagement value of the new input. The engagement valuecan be based on several factors including temporal and contextualrelevance. For example, recent reviews, reviews accompanied with images,or reviews liked by others may be positioned first under the websiteelement with other lesser engaging content (e.g., older reviews, reviewswithout images, or reviews that liked by others) positioned underneath.Verification can also factor into the positioning of the new input, withverified input being positioned before unverified input.

The process then modifies (at 270) the presentation of the websiteelements. This includes promoting, demoting, visually differentiating,or removing website elements. The changes to the website elementpresentation are based on the engagement levels of the website elementsas determined from the input or engagement that is associated with eachwebsite element. Certain website elements may become more popular thanothers based on the input or engagement from the different inputsources. For instance, a first restaurant dish represented by a firstwebsite element may receive few or no reviews, whereas a secondrestaurant dish represented by a different second website element mayreceive several positive reviews. In this case, the process determinesthat the second restaurant dish is more popular and promotes the secondrestaurant dish by moving the second website element ahead of the firstwebsite element in the website presentation. Such repositioning improvesuser engagement with the website by providing users quick and directidentification of the most relevant content, and by providing thebusiness with analytical insight that extends beyond just number ofsales (e.g., which elements/dishes are most viewed). Other means withwhich to promote website elements include adding tags or visuallydifferentiating website elements from one another.

The first presentation of the living website provided at step 215 haschanged a result of positioning the new input and modifying thepresentation of the website elements. Accordingly, the condition formachine rewriting the living website code has been triggered and theprocess performs (at 280) a machine rewriting of the website code toproduce a different second presentation of the living website. Thesecond presentation incorporates the changes from the steps above. Inparticular, the code for the relevant website site is rewritten ormodified to include the new input along with existing input according tothe positioning at 260. The code is also rewritten to reflect anychanges to the promotion, repositioning, or reformatting of the websiteelements resulting from the modifying at 270. The second presentation ofthe living website is then served (at 290) in response to subsequentrequests from one or more user devices.

Some embodiments base the dynamic positioning of the received input andthe modified presentation of the website elements on scores assigned tothe received inputs. Each input is scored to reflect its engagementvalue. The score is based on the verification status of the input,contextual relevance, and temporal relevance as some factors. The scorecan change over time as these factors change.

Some embodiments determine contextual relevance based on the presence orabsence of certain features. For instance, a review that is strictlytext based is scored less than a review having text and an image,because visitors are more likely to engage with the review having textand an image than the review that is strictly text based. Similarly, areview that is descriptive and expressive is scored greater than aconcise review that generally mentions a business offering. Sentimentanalysis may be used for scoring the contextual relevance of differentinput.

Temporal relevance scores more recently received input greater thaninput from months or years in the past. The accounting of the temporalrelevance allows the living website to change with the business overtime. Thus, unlike review sites of the prior art in which an initial setof negative reviews stick with the business forever, the temporalrelevance deprioritizes such reviews over time.

Other input is scored based on the associated event or action. Forinstance, the input action of selecting a restaurant dish as a“favorite” is scored higher than the input action of saving a dish totry.

In addition to scoring active user engagement (i.e., the input that iscontributed directly by users), the living website generation systemalso tracks and scores passive engagements. A passive engagement istrackable activity without a user created submission. The time usersspend viewing a specific website element or the number of timesdifferent website elements are selected are examples of passive userengagement that the system tracks. Each such passive engagement can bescored in a similar fashion as the active user engagements, and can beused by the living website in the autonomous and dynamic changing of thewebsite code and presentation. For instance, a first website element hasa higher passive engagement score than a second website element when thefirst website element is selected (e.g., clicked on) twice as much asthe second website element.

Passive engagement also includes input obtained from the distributeddevices. In particular, integration with point of sale devices of abusiness provide the living website generation system with real-timeinformation as to the popularity and purchase rate of differentofferings of the business that are represented by different websiteelements of the living site. In this case of website elementsrepresenting restaurant dishes, the passive engagement score of eachwebsite element can be based in part on the number of times eachcorresponding dish is ordered or purchased as identified from thebusiness point of sale device input feed. The website elements for themost frequently ordered dishes can then be promoted or visuallydifferentiated in subsequent presentation of the living website based ontheir passive engagement scores. This passive engagement can also becategorized. For example, the point of sale device input feed indicateswhich restaurant dishes have been ordered the most. The living websitegeneration system can categorize the order information based onappetizers, entrees, and desserts. The living website generation systemcan then promote the most popular dishes in each category. For instance,the most ordered appetizers, entrees, and desserts can be presentedfirst in their respective sections of the living website.

FIG. 3 conceptually illustrates dynamic placement of different input fora particular website element of a living website in accordance with someembodiments. The figure conceptually illustrates different inputs thatare associated with the particular website element 305 as a result oftracked engagement. Each input is scored and the scores are presentedfor explanatory purposes.

The living website continually changes its presentation of the inputsunder the particular website element 305 so that the inputs with thehighest scores are presented first for increased visibility and userengagement. In this figure, the first review 310 that is presented isolder than the second review 320. However, the first review 310 isdetermined to drive more user engagement and therefore have a higherengagement value than the second review 320 because of the expressiveand descriptive language of the review 310 relative to the second review320 and other reviews. Moreover, the second review 320 is assigned ahigher score than a third review 330, because the second review 320 hasbeen verified to come from a user that visited the business or purchasedthe referenced dish, whereas the third review 330 has not been verifiedbut is more expressive and descriptive than the second review 320. Theengagement value of the reviews could be increased further ifaccompanied with an image.

Other inputs or types of engagement with the particular website element305 may be displayed and scored separately. FIG. 3 conceptuallyillustrates the different scores or different engagement values of a setof predefined engagement actions 340 for the particular website element305. If a user invokes or selects one of the set of predefinedengagement actions 340 for the particular website element, the action isrecorded and associated with the particular website element as indicatedby reference marker 350. Moreover, the score for the invoked action isadded to the aggregate score representing the total engagement value ofthe particular website element 305.

It is worth reiterating that, in some embodiments, the dynamic placementof the tracked input for the particular website element 305 is performedautonomously and continuously without human intervention. Once again,this breaks from traditional website creation whereby a humansubjectively orders content or a machine sequentially adds content asthe content is received regardless of its engagement value as determinedfrom contextual relevance, temporal relevance, verification status, andother factors.

The autonomous and dynamic generation of the living website involvesrearranging inputs under each website element as shown in FIG. 3 above,and also reformatting the layout, position and look of the websiteelements themselves. These changes to the living website elements arealso based on the assigned engagement scores.

In some embodiments, the engagement score for a particular websiteelement is the sum of the engagement scores of the engagementsassociated with that particular website element. In other words, themore positive engagement that is tracked for a particular websiteelement, the greater the engagement value of that particular websiteelement.

The website elements with the greatest aggregate engagement scores arethe website elements that users most commonly interact with or engagewith, and thereby represent the most popular business offerings. Toincrease engagement with the living website, the website elements withthe highest aggregate scores are repositioned or reformatted so that themost engaging content and most sought-after information are easily foundin the presentation of the living website.

FIG. 4 conceptually illustrates a living website modifying itself, andmore specifically, its presentation of website elements in accordancewith the autonomous and dynamic generation of the living website. Thefigure illustrates a first presentation 410 or rendering for the websiteelements of the living website and a subsequent second presentation 420or rendering for the website elements of the living website. Thedifferent presentations 410 and 420 illustrate how the living websitereconfigures its code and the presentation of its website elements basedon tracked engagement with those elements. In this figure, the websiteelements are representative of different restaurant dishes from arestaurant menu. Each website element is displayed with encirclednumbers representing the tracked engagement for that website element orthe corresponding dish at the time of the living website presentation.

A particular website element 430 representative of a particularrestaurant dish is provided an obscure position in the firstpresentation 410 of the living website. The positioning of theparticular website element 430 within the first presentation 410 can bedue to an initial template or positioning that is configured by therestaurant, the particular restaurant dish being a new dish, or a lackof tracked engagement with the particular website element 430.

Between the first presentation 410 and the second presentation 420,there is a significant amount of tracked engagement with the particularwebsite element 430. This can include active engagement based on usersubmission of positive reviews and ratings for the particular websiteelement 430 as well as likes, favoriting, sharing, and other positiveattributable actions directed to the particular website element 430.This can also include passive engagement based on tracking an increasein the number of times the particular website element 430 is selected(e.g., clicked on) relative to other website elements of the livingwebsite, or tracking an increase in the time users spends viewing theparticular website element 430 and the input associated with particularwebsite element 430 (e.g., reviews, ratings, likes, images, etc.)relative to other website elements of the living website.

Each such engagement (e.g., active or passive) adds to or increases thescore of the particular website element 430 relative to the otherwebsite elements. The increased score may additionally or alternativelybe in response to increased sales volume for that dish as determinedfrom distributed devices, such as point of sale devices of therestaurant or payment processing devices. The increased score indicatesthat the particular restaurant dish is or has recently become a favoriteor popular dish among the restaurant's patrons.

In response to this increased engagement and the increased score, theliving website autonomously reconfigures itself to produce the secondpresentation 420 in which the particular website element 430 isrepositioned to the top of the living website in a featured section. Thesecond presentation 420 is produced as a result of the generation systemrewriting the living website code to embed the tracked engagement aspart of the particular website element 430 and also to reposition theparticular website element 430.

FIG. 5 conceptually illustrates the living website reconfiguring withvisual differentiation of a web site element with high engagement valuein accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 5 illustrates a firstpresentation 510 of the living website. The system generates andprovides the first presentation 510 in response to a first request forthe living website. The first presentation 510 includes images for twoof the website elements and textual descriptions for the other websiteelements.

After generating and sending the first presentation 510, a particularwebsite element 530 receives input and engagement that increases theaggregate score for the particular website element 530 relative to otherwebsite elements. The increased score is indicative of users engagingmore with the particular website element 530 than other elements. Toretain and increase the engagement, the living website changes from thefirst presentation 510 to the second presentation 520 so that theparticular website element 530 is visually differentiated from the otherelements.

The second presentation 520 differentiates and draws engagement to theparticular website element 530 by tagging or highlighting the particularwebsite element 530. The second presentation 520 also expands andoverlays a review 540 that is determined to have significant engagementvalue rather than embed that review under the particular website element530 until the particular website element 530 is selected. Finally, thesecond presentation 520 adds a user submitted image 550 to theparticular website element 530, wherein the first presentation 510 didnot include an image with the particular website element 530.

The second presentation 520 is dynamically generated and provided inresponse to a subsequent second request for the living website. Hereagain, the changes to the living website are based on tracked engagementwith the tracked engagement conditioning the machine rewriting of theliving website without human modification of the code.

In some embodiments, the living website further customizes its code andpresentation on an individual requestor basis. In some such embodiments,different user variants of the living website are autonomously anddynamically generated from a continuously changing root instance of theliving website. The living website autonomously and dynamicallyincorporates individualized customizations for a specific user based onprior engagements by that specific user.

Prior engagements of users are tracked to user profiles stored at theliving website generation system. In some embodiments, users create theprofiles to facilitate the input submission or to opt in for the livingwebsite individualized customizations. Users can link their mobiledevices to a created user profile in order for the system to trackvarious engagements originating from the mobile devices. In someembodiments, users submit inputs to different living website through aconsumer application that is installed on the user device. The consumerapplication updates the user profile based on various active and passiveengagements the user has with different sites.

The system tracks each engagement a user has with the living websites ofdifferent businesses to the corresponding user profile. This includestracking active and passive engagements, wherein active engagementsinclude reviews, ratings, images, liking, sharing, and other usercreated submissions, and wherein passive engagements include trackableactivity without a user created submission to a website or websiteelement (e.g., website element selections by a user, number of visits toa website, user viewing time of a website or website element, etc.).

The user profiles are also populated with user engagements that aretracked by the distributed devices. For instance, geolocation of theuser's mobile phone provides passive engagement information as to thenumber of times the user visits a business. Point of sale devices alsoprovide engagement information as to the business offerings that theuser purchases.

FIG. 6 conceptually illustrates a user profile for customizing theautonomous and dynamic generation of the living website in accordancewith some embodiments. The user profile 610 tracks different active andpassive engagements the user has had with different website elements ofvarious living websites. This includes passive engagements includingliving website visits 620 and time spent viewing specific websiteelements 630. This further includes passive engagement tracked from ageolocation sensor 640 of the user's mobile device and purchase history650 from various point of sale devices that are integrated as part ofthe living website generation system. The user profile 610 also tracksactive engagements including review submissions 660, image submissions680, and invocation of various preset actions 690.

From the user profile, the system can determine individual userpreferences and customize the presentation of the living websites forindividual users based on their user preferences. For example, thesystem may determine a particular user's preference for pasta dishesbased the user profile of that particular user tracking a high number oflikes for pasta dishes, a high number of selections for website elementsrepresenting pasta dishes, a large amount of time spent viewing websiteelements representing pasta dishes, geolocation information indicatingfrequent visits to Italian restaurants, and purchase history directed topasta dishes. In response to this user preference, the system cancustomize the presentation of a particular restaurant living website inorder to promote or highlight website elements representing pasta disheswhile demoting, obscuring, or hiding other website elements.

FIG. 7 presents a process 700 by which the living website autonomouslyand dynamically customizes its code and presentation for an individualuser based on a user profile in accordance with some embodiments. Theprocess commences in response to the system receiving (at 710) a requestfor a living website of a particular business.

The process identifies (at 720) the user submitting the request. Theuser identification can be based on an Internet Protocol (IP) or otheraddressing of the user, a cookie or token accompanying the request, orlogin credentials accompanying the request.

The process obtains (at 730) a user profile for the identified user.Once again, the user profile tracks various active and passiveengagements the user has had with different websites. This againincludes reviews and ratings the user has submitted for differentwebsite elements of the different websites, time spent viewing differentwebsite elements, geolocation information identifying businesses visitedby the user, and point of sale device information identifying userpurchases. For the purposes of this figure, it is assumed that the userprofile contains user submitted input that positively identifies spicyrestaurant dishes the user has enjoyed at various restaurants.

The process extracts (at 740) user preferences from the engagement andinput tracked to the obtained user profile. The user preferences can beextracted from metadata or tags that are associated with the user inputor from conducting sentiment analysis of the user input. Continuing fromthe example above, the user preferences reveal that the user enjoysspicy dishes.

The process autonomously and dynamically generates (at 750) the livingwebsite of the particular business by rewriting the website codeaccording to all tracked input and engagement for the particularbusiness. In particular, the process dynamically generates the websitebased on the input and engagement the living website receives fromothers.

The process then customizes (at 760) the living website based on thepreferences of the requesting user as determined from the user profileobtained at 730. The customizations involve identifying website elementsthat match to the user preferences. In some embodiments, the websiteelements are tagged with metadata. The metadata identifies properties,keywords, and other qualities associated with the corresponding websiteelement. Accordingly, the matching can be performed by findingcommonality between the preferences from the user profile and thewebsite element metadata. The code for the living website is furthermodified to promote the matching website elements for easieridentification by the user. Once again, this can include repositioningthe matching website elements or adding visual differentiation for thematching website elements that did not exist in dynamically generatingthe website at step 750. If the user preferences indicate a propensityfor spicy dishes, the customizations at 760 include promoting orotherwise visually differentiating the website elements of the livingwebsite that represent spicy dishes. The process serves (at 770) theuser customized variant of the living website in response to the requestreceived at step 710.

FIG. 8 conceptually illustrates individualized customizations of theliving website in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 8 illustrates auser profile 810 that is the basis for the individualized customizationsto the living website. The user profile 810 is populated with active andpassive engagement that identifies the user's preference for spicydishes. The active engagement includes positive reviews the usersubmitted for spicy dishes at various restaurants. Other activeengagement added to the user profile 810 comes from distributed devices,and specifically, point of sale devices of different restaurants thattrack the user's purchasing behavior and that reveal a propensity forpurchasing spicy dishes. The passive engagement includes greater amountsof time the user spent on website elements for spicy dishes and userclicks on website elements for spicy dishes than website elements forother dishes.

The figure further illustrates a first presentation 820 of the livingwebsite. The first presentation 820 promotes the most popular dishes ofthe restaurant based on all tracked engagement for the website elements.The promoted dishes are presented first with large graphics. Lessprominently displayed is website element 830 for a spicy dish with tagsmatching the user's preferences from the user profile 810.

The matching of the website element 830 to the user preferences from theuser profile 810 conditions the machine rewriting of the living websitecode. In particular, the machine rewriting of the living website codeoccurs in response to receiving a request for the living website from amachine or user associated with the user profile 810, obtaining the userprofile 810 based on the request, and identifying the customizationsbased on the user preferences from the user profile 810 matching to atleast the website element 830. The machine rewriting produces a secondpresentation 840 of the living website.

As shown in FIG. 8, the second presentation 840 promotes the websiteelement 830 within the living website for easier and more immediatevisibility. The website element 830 is also visually differentiated fromthe other website elements in order to stand out and increase thelikelihood of grabbing the user's attention and engagement. The visualdifferentiators include presenting the website element 830 with an imagewhere the first presentation 820 did not include an image with thewebsite element 830, highlighting the website element 830 to draw focusto that element, adding a spicy icon to present the association to theuser's preferences, and presenting a positive review from another user.The second presentation 840 and visual differentiators thereof alsoallow the user to find the information that he or she is likely mostinterested in, and readily present the information that the user is mostlikely to engage with without the user having to scroll, click, or othernavigate through the living website.

Additional user customizations can include removing content from theliving website when the content is irrelevant or not of interest to auser as determined from the corresponding user profile. For instance, aparticular user profile may identify a user to be a vegetarian. Thisidentification can be based on the user actively engaging (e.g.,submitting reviews, ratings, images, etc.) only with website elementsfor vegetarian dishes on different restaurant sites. The identificationcan also be based on the user profile tracking purchase history of theuser and the purchase history including purchases of vegetarian dishesonly. In some embodiments, the user can directly identify himself orherself as a vegetarian within the user profile when creating the userprofile. In any such case, the living website generation system cancustomize the presentation of different restaurant living websites forthat user, based on the user profile identifying the user as avegetarian, by removing one or more website elements that are tagged orotherwise associated with meat containing dishes. In doing so, theliving website provides the website elements that are of most interestto the user while hiding the other website elements that are of nointerest to the user.

In some embodiments, the dynamic website generation customizes theliving website by prioritizing business profitability. In some suchembodiments, the system receives an input feed from machines or systemsof a distributor or goods provider. The input feed identifies the rawgoods or materials purchased by the business as well the cost for eachunit. The living website identifies the final goods sold by thebusiness. The elements of the living website are tagged with thedifferent raw goods or materials and quantities with which the finalgoods are made. From these inputs, the system computes the cost to makeeach final good and compares the cost to the sales price. The system canthen promote or prioritize the final goods with the highestprofitability and dynamically change the promotions as costs for the rawgoods and materials fluctuate.

For example, some embodiments communicably couple the system to a feedfrom a distributor such as Sysco or US Foods. The feed provides adigital account of the goods purchased by a restaurant or business whoseliving website is generated by the system. More specifically, the feedidentifiers the per unit price of each good. The living websiteidentifies the different restaurant dishes. Each dish is represented bya different website element and each website element is tagged with thequantity of the different ingredients from which the dish is made. Eachwebsite element also specifies a price for each dish. Thus, when twowebsite elements have the same or similar engagement or aggregatescores, the system can prioritize the promotion of the website elementrepresenting the dish with greater profitability.

The continually changing of the living website does its part to increaseand retain user traffic to the living website and the businessrepresented by that living website. Nevertheless, there is still a needto attract users to the living websites apart from the organic ornatural attraction that occurs from users looking for information aboutthe businesses represented by the living websites.

In some embodiments, the system leverages the user profiles or aconsumer application to dynamically generate content that drives userengagement or user traffic to a living website. The consumer applicationcan be an application installed and running on the user mobile device.The consumer application can be used to access the living websites ofdifferent businesses and track active and passive engagement of the userwith those living websites. The consumer application can also accesssensors of the mobile device for additional passive engagement tracking,including identifying when a user visits a business storefront (based onGPS geolocation tracking) or purchases one or more items from a business(based on mobile payment).

The living website generation system, through the the consumerapplication, can detect when a user visits a storefront of a particularbusiness. The system can then send a prompt or notification to the userthrough the consumer application requesting the user to submit a reviewor rating about the particular business with the review or rating beingused as active engagement input with which to customize subsequentpresentations of the living website for the particular business.

As noted above, the system can determine user preferences from the userprofile. Assume that the user profile of a particular user indicates apreference for a particular type of dish. The system can scan themetadata, tags, or website elements of the living websites to identifyrestaurants that offer that particular type of dish. The system can thenpresent those restaurants or the particular type of dish from thoserestaurants to the user. The system may restrict the identification torestaurants that the user has engaged with in the past or has otherwiseexpressed an interest in. The dynamically generated content can beprovided to the user as targeted advertising or promotional materialsthat are emailed or sent as text messages, or content that is presentedthrough the user profile, consumer application, or otherwise presentedon other websites.

Some embodiments attract users based on inputs from the distributeddevices, and more specifically, geolocation information from user phonesand sales receipts from point of sale devices of the businesses. Basedon the geolocation information, the system tracks when a user enters abusiness. At that time or a later time, the system may send a prompt tothe user requesting the user share his or her experience with thebusiness by engaging with the living website for that particularbusiness. The prompt can be a text message, email, or alert sentdirectly to the user mobile device. The prompt can also be anotification that is created in the user profile that is presented tothe user when the user next accesses his or her profile or anotification that appears on the consumer application running on theuser mobile device.

Engagement can be attracted in a similar fashion in response to feedingdata from the business's point of sale devices to the living websitegeneration system of some embodiments. The feed from the point of saledevices can identify a user of a credit card transaction, the businessthe user transacted with, and optionally items the user purchased. Inresponse to this input feed from the distributed devices of thebusiness, the system can once again provide a prompt to the user andrequest the user to engage with the dynamically generated website forthat particular business. For example, the tracked purchase historyidentifies a user that prefers pasta dishes. In this case, the systemcan provide a prompt to notify the user to view a new or popular dish atthe living website for the corresponding restaurant.

FIG. 9 illustrates components of the living website generation system ofsome embodiments. The system includes a datastore 910, an engagementtracker 920, a verification engine 930, and a living website generator940. The components can be a mix of hardware and software thatcollectively form a special purposed machine for the autonomously anddynamically generation the living websites.

The datastore 910 is memory or storage to which the latest instance ofeach living website is stored. The datastore 910 stores all the websiteelements that comprise a living website as well as the tracked input andengagement that become part of each website element. The datastore 910is also memory or storage to which user profile information is stored.

The engagement tracker 920 tracks active and passive engagement for thewebsite elements of the different living websites created by the system.The engagement tracker 920 tracks interactions with the living websitesand receives user and business member submissions including new content,reviews, ratings, images, and invocation of predefined actions. Theengagement tracker 920 also tracks the passive engagements with theliving websites including the number of visitors to a living website,selections of different website elements, and amount of time spent bydifferent users on different website elements. The engagement tracker920 further integrates external distributed devices from whichadditional engagement is obtained. As noted above, this includescommunicably coupling with user mobile devices and leveraging thegeolocation or GPS sensor of the devices for physical engagement withbusinesses. This also includes integrating with point of sale terminalsand obtaining engagements in the form of purchasing or transaction data.The engagement tracker 920 also creates and populates the user profileswith engagement tracked from corresponding users.

The verification engine 930 verifies the engagement tracked by theengagement tracker 920. The verification engine 930 verifies theaccuracy and relevance of tracked engagement and matches the trackedengagement to a specific website element. The verification of particularengagement can be performed with other tracked engagement, otherexisting content, or by contacting business members. Once theverification engine 930 associates a tracked engagement to a websiteelement of a particular living website, the tracked engagement is storedin conjunction with that website element in the datastore 910.

The living website generator 940 contains the logic for the autonomousand dynamic generation of the living website according to theembodiments described above. The living website generator 940 conditionsthe machine writing and rewriting of the living website code on thecontinually changing engagement tracked by the engagement tracker 920 aswell as user preferences based on tracked engagements to user profiles.The living website generator 940 performs the machine writing of theliving website code to produce the continually changing presentation ofthe living websites. The generated living websites are then passed overa data network to requesting users or user machines. The engagementtracker 920, verification engine 930, and living website generator 940collectively form a special purposed machine for generating the livingwebsite in accordance with the above described embodiments.

Server, computer, and computing machine are meant in their broadestsense, and can include any electronic device with a processor includingcellular telephones, smartphones, portable digital assistants, tabletdevices, laptops, notebooks, and desktop computers. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to, CD-ROMs, flashdrives, RAM chips, hard drives, EPROMs, etc.

FIG. 10 illustrates hardware components of the system with which someembodiments are implemented. Such a system includes various types ofcomputer-readable mediums and interfaces for various other types ofcomputer-readable mediums that implement the various methods andmachines described above. System 1000 includes a bus 1005, a processor1010, a system memory 1015, a read-only memory 1020, a permanent storagedevice 1025, input devices 1030, and output devices 1035.

The bus 1005 collectively represents all system, peripheral, and chipsetbuses that communicatively connect the numerous internal devices of thesystem 1000. For instance, the bus 1005 communicatively connects theprocessor 1010 with the read-only memory 1020, the system memory 1015,and the permanent storage device 1025. From these various memory units,the processor 1010 retrieves instructions to execute and data to processin order to execute the processes of the invention. The processor 1010is a processing device such as a central processing unit, integratedcircuit, graphical processing unit, etc.

The read-only-memory (ROM) 1020 stores static data and instructions thatare needed by the processor 1010 and other modules of the system. Thepermanent storage device 1025, on the other hand, is a read-and-writememory device. This device is a non-volatile memory unit that storesinstructions and data even when the system 1000 is off. Some embodimentsof the invention use a mass-storage device (such as a magnetic oroptical disk and its corresponding disk drive) as the permanent storagedevice 1025.

Other embodiments use a removable storage device (such as a flash drive)as the permanent storage device Like the permanent storage device 1025,the system memory 1015 is a read-and-write memory device. However,unlike storage device 1025, the system memory is a volatileread-and-write memory, such as random access memory (RAM). The systemmemory stores some of the instructions and data that the processor needsat runtime. In some embodiments, the processes are stored in the systemmemory 1015, the permanent storage device 1025, and/or the read-onlymemory 1020.

The bus 1005 also connects to the input and output devices 1030 and1035. The input devices enable the user to communicate information andselect commands to the system. The input devices 1030 includealphanumeric keypads (including physical keyboards and touchscreenkeyboards), pointing devices. The input devices 1030 also include audioinput devices (e.g., microphones, MIDI musical instruments, etc.). Theoutput devices 1035 display images generated by the system. The outputdevices include printers and display devices, such as cathode ray tubes(CRT) or liquid crystal displays (LCD).

Finally, as shown in FIG. 10, bus 1005 also couples computer 1000 to anetwork 1065 through a network adapter (not shown). In this manner, thecomputer can be a part of a network of computers (such as a local areanetwork (“LAN”), a wide area network (“WAN”), or an Intranet, or anetwork of networks, such as the Internet).

As mentioned above, the system 1000 may include one or more of a varietyof different computer-readable media. Some examples of suchcomputer-readable media include RAM, ROM, read-only compact discs(CD-ROM), recordable compact discs (CD-R), rewritable compact discs(CD-RW), read-only digital versatile discs (e.g., DVD-ROM, dual-layerDVD-ROM), a variety of recordable/rewritable DVDs (e.g., DVD-RAM,DVD-RW, DVD+RW, etc.), flash memory (e.g., SD cards, mini-SD cards,micro-SD cards, etc.), magnetic and/or solid state hard drives, ZIP®disks, read-only and recordable blu-ray discs, any other optical ormagnetic media, and floppy disks.

In the preceding specification, various preferred embodiments have beendescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto,and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing fromthe broader scope of the invention as set forth in the claims thatfollow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded inan illustrative rather than restrictive sense.

We claim:
 1. A method for autonomously and dynamically generating aliving website, the method comprising: providing a first instance of theliving website across a plurality of user devices based on computer codedefining a first presentation of a plurality of website elements formingthe living website; conditioning a machine rewriting of the computercode based on different engagements with the plurality of websiteelements; tracking from the plurality of user devices, a plurality ofengagements occurring with the plurality of website elements in responseto said providing; executing said machine rewriting of the computer codein response to said tracking of the plurality of engagements, whereinsaid executing comprises defining from executing the machine rewritingof the computer code, a different second presentation of the pluralityof website elements in which at least a particular website element isrepositioned from the first presentation or is visually differentiatedfrom other website elements of the plurality of website elements inresponse to the plurality of engagements targeting the particularwebsite element more than other website elements of the plurality ofwebsite elements; and providing across one or more of the plurality ofuser devices, a second instance of the living website with the secondpresentation of the plurality of website elements in response to saidexecution of the machine rewriting of the computer code and requests forthe living website issuing from the one or more user devices after saidexecuting.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting basedon a sensor of a particular user device of the plurality of userdevices, location of the particular user device at a particularbusiness, wherein the particular business or an offering of theparticular business is a target of an engagement tracked from theparticular user device.
 3. The method of claim 2 further comprisingverifying the engagement tracked from the particular user device inresponse to said detecting the location of the particular user device atthe particular business based on said sensor of the particular userdevice.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking comprisesreceiving input contributed by users of the plurality of user devices,wherein said input comprises textual reviews, ratings, images, or userinvocation of one or more actions associated with the particular websiteelement.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the tracking furthercomprises monitoring a number of times each website element from theplurality of website elements is selected from the first presentation,or a duration with which each website element from the plurality ofwebsite elements is viewed.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein saidmachine rewriting of the computer code executes before and in place ofhuman rewriting of the computer code.
 7. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising scoring each engagement of the plurality of engagements. 8.The method of claim 1 wherein the particular web site element is a firstwebsite element of the plurality of website elements, and whereindefining the second presentation comprises removing a different secondwebsite element of the plurality of website elements appearing in thefirst presentation.
 9. The method of claim 1 further comprisingpresenting a plurality of different websites to a particular user deviceof the plurality of user devices, and tracking engagements of a singleuser with the plurality of different websites in response saidpresenting.
 10. The method of claim 9 further comprising creating a userprofile based on said tracking engagements of the single user with theplurality of different websites.
 11. The method of claim 10 furthercomprising generating from additional machine rewriting of the computercode resulting from said executing, a third presentation in which atleast a second website element different than the particular websiteelement is repositioned from the second presentation or is visuallydifferentiated from other website elements of the plurality of websiteelements.
 12. A living website system comprising: a processor; a memorystoring computer code defining a first presentation for a plurality ofwebsite elements forming a living website at a first time; anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, wherein thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium stores a program forautonomously and dynamically rewriting the computer code with saidprocessor based on engagement with the living website, the programincluding instruction for: presenting the first presentation of theliving website to a user machine in response to a request for the livingwebsite from the user machine at the first time; tracking at least oneengagement with the plurality of website elements originating from theuser machine in response to said presenting; rewriting the computer codein response to said tracking the at least one engagement, wherein saidrewriting comprises defining a different second presentation for theplurality of website elements in which at least a particular websiteelement targeted by the at least one engagement is repositioned from thefirst presentation or is visually differentiated from other websiteelements of the plurality of website elements; replacing in said memory,the computer code defining the first presentation with computer codedefining the second presentation; and presenting the second presentationof the living website to the same or different user machine in responseto a request for the living website at a second time after saidrewriting.
 13. The living website system of claim 12 further comprisinga camera of the user machine integrating with the living website system,wherein said tracking comprises obtaining from said camera, an image ofan object represented by the particular website element.
 14. The livingwebsite system of claim 12 further comprising a geolocation sensor ofthe user machine integrating with the living website system, wherein theprogram further includes instruction for verifying the at least oneengagement with the geolocation sensor confirming a location of the usermachine at a business associated with the living website.
 15. The livingwebsite system of claim 12 further comprising a point of sale deviceintegrating with the living website system, wherein the program furtherincludes instruction for verifying the at least one engagement based ona completed transaction to a user associated with the user machine. 16.The living website system of claim 12 further comprising at least oneuser profile storing previous engagements associated with a user of theuser machine, and wherein said replacing comprises changing the firstpresentation based on said previous engagements from the at least oneuser profile.
 17. An autonomous and dynamic website generation system,the system comprising: a camera capturing an image of an objectrepresented by a first website element of a plurality of websiteelements rendered as part of a first presentation of a website; ageolocation sensor tracking location of a user device to a businessrepresented by said website; a point of sale device capturingtransactional data of the business, the transactional data comprisingidentification of a user and an offering of the business purchased bythe user; and a website code generator modifying code of the websitewith said modifying changing the website from the first presentation toa different second presentation in which the first website element isrendered with the image from said camera and a second website element ofthe plurality of website elements is repositioned or visuallydifferentiated from the first presentation in response to input from theuser device verified with at least one of the geolocation sensortracking the location of the user device to the business or the point ofsale device capturing transactional data to an offering represented bythe second website element.